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Willie Mullins on the brilliance of Douvan and importance of Wither Or Which

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Sat March 07, 2026 · 16 min ago

Willie Mullins has chosen Douvan as the one star among his plethora of Cheltenham Festival winners that he would have loved to have ridden in a race.

The most successful trainer in the meeting’s history was speaking with his son and assistant Patrick on Sporting Life’s Jockeybox feature which goes live on our YouTube channel at 9am on Sunday.

The pair watch back a series of iconic races including Susannah and Rich Ricci’s brilliant chaser routing his rivals in the 2013 Champion Chase.

The trainer said: “He was a huge horse physically but he had a fantastic temperament and you could leave a five-year-old child with him in the stable and he’d look after them. And in terms of ability, I think he probably had as much as anything we’ve ever trained over fences. There are horses you have on your hands through your life that have huge ability but if they’re not sound it’s no good because they can’t show that ability over a period of years.

“When we lost Vautour…he could have been as good as Douvan if not better but we lost him and will never know. I look now and think of it the other way round, weren’t we lucky to have him for the time that we did.

“I’ve never ridden a horse since I gave up riding but if I had the chance to ride any horse, Douvan is the one I’d want to sit on. To me, just to walk back alongside him, leading him, the power, the motion, everything was there. I’d have no interest sitting on Hurricane Fly, Quevega, Faugheen, or any of those.

“This is the guy to me who was the Rolls Royce of horses. To this day I’d still love to get up on him.”

Willie Mullins Stable Tour: Cheltenham Festival 2026

Wither Or Which victory huge moment in career trajectory

Mullins Senior did ride and train a Festival winner in 1996 courtesy of Wither Or Which and he’s in no doubt over the significance of that moment.

“He was just a galloping machine. In my book there was going to be no sprint finish out of him. I got to the front quite early, after the stands or halfway down the back, and he was running away. I just kept him galloping with every stride, he had a very long stride so the key for me was keeping him balanced, keeping him moving and try not to let anyone get across and in front of me," he said.

“I wouldn’t have been riding much. I actually wanted to retire because I wasn’t enjoying riding. Every jockey gets to a stage where they’re not enjoying it anymore, and I was at that stage. I’d have given up at Christmas but then he came along.

“Cheltenham was on my mind and every night from Christmas to the night before the race and I had ridden the race in every way, in every scenario. So, when the tapes went up and he stood still I knew exactly what I was going to do. And did totally the opposite to what I normally would.

“Usually if that happens you just jump off and make up your ground gradually but I thought if it happens on this fellow I’m just going to go like the clappers for the first two-and-a-half furlongs which I did.

“I think I was seventh of eighth passing the winning post the first time, but I wanted to make my ground up quickly and I wouldn’t like anyone to do it now, but on this particular horse it was going to be the way to ride him.

“They didn’t go very fast and he made the ground up quick enough to be in the position I wanted to be in passing the stands.

Watch the Willie & Mullins Jockeybox from 09:00GMT on Sunday

“When he won at Christmas I said to Jackie if we sell him, we’ll just be a selling yard and I think this fella can win the Cheltenham bumper. So, we sold three legs, kept one leg, and the condition was I was going to ride him. And the second condition was that would never be mentioned again!

“Jackie in fairness held her nerve and we took a lot less money. We could have got a lot more to sell him out of the yard outright, but it was a decision we made at the time and was huge for us as it turned out because we bought him, broke him, trained him and even though we had a Cheltenham winner the year before with Tourist Attraction, we hadn’t bought him, we leased him.

“We did everything else, and people could see we could buy a horse and bring it all the way to Cheltenham and it was a huge vote of confidence. A lot of people then came to me to buy horses with the view of going to Cheltenham.

“Had we sold him for a lot of money, he’d have gone to Cheltenham and won for someone else, we’d have been doing that every year, just pinhooking.

“To me it was a huge difference to our business that we were able to go through, buy, train, sell but more importantly win at Cheltenham. Then people start having more confidence in you and start sending you better horses.”

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